Serbia PM Files Charges Over ‘Basic Instinct’ Prank

Prime Minister Ivica Dacic wants to punish a TV crew who subjected him to public ridicule by conning him into a fake interview with a semi-naked model.Ivica Toncev, the prime minister’s special adviser for national security, said on Thursday that Dacic was taking legal action against those who violated the law and the Serbian journalists’ code of conduct by broadcasting the prank interview with the scantily-clad woman.

During the stunt, which was orchestrated by Serbian TV show ‘Nemoguca Misija’ (‘Mission Impossible’) on cable channel Kopernikus on Tuesday, Dacic appeared to believe that he was taking part in a serious interview about regional relations in the Balkans.

But he managed to keep his cool and only gave a brief smirk when the woman interviewing him – a former Serbian Playboy magazine model – crossed her legs to reveal that she wasn’t wearing any knickers, in an imitation of Sharon Stone’s best-known scene from the 1992 film ‘Basic Instinct’.

In just two days, the footage got almost three million views on YouTube and many world media outlets including the CNN, the Global Post and the Daily Mail reported on it.

Britain’s mass-market tabloid The Sun, not usually known for reporting on Balkan politicians, praised Dacic for staying calm while being mocked.

“The Serb shows he’s in the premier league when it comes to taking a joke,” the tabloid said.

The Serbian journalists’ association, NUNS, has strongly condemned the prank.

“This was inconsistent with the standards of professional journalism and is more qualified as pornography than a media provocation,” NUNS said in a statement.

Psychologist Zarko Trebjesanin said meanwhile that the stunt was “a symbolic assassination of the prime minister”.

“The candid camera was mocking not the prime minister but Serbia. I do not know if something like this could happen in any other country,” Trebjesanin told Blic newspaper.

Serbia’s police union has also called for the people responsible for Dacic’s security to be punished.